This invention relates to a phone holder which is installed in an automotive vehicle or the like to hold a mobile phone.
With the spread of portable phones, phone holders which enable mobile phones to be used and held in automotive vehicles have been developed in recent years. A generally known phone holder as such is provided with a holder main body in the form of a frame or the like for holding a mobile phone and a holder connector mounted on the holder main body or a vehicle body via a curl cord or the like. In this phone holder, the mobile phone is connected with the holder connector; is positioned on the holder main body; and is held in this state by a locking device or the like.
With the prior art phone holder as above, it is not easy to position the mobile phone and the holder connector when connecting them. It is difficult for a driver to perform such an operation while he is driving a vehicle. Further, the mobile phone is not stably held and may, accordingly, come out of the holder due to vibrations produced during the driving.
As a means to overcome such an inconvenience, the holder main body may be formed such that the inner configuration thereof substantially conforms to the outer configuration of the mobile phone, so that the mobile phone can be closely fitted into the holder main body. In this way, the positioning of the mobile phone and the holder connector can be made easier and the mobile phone can be stably held.
However, with such a construction, only the mobile phones having the outer configuration in conformity with the inner configuration of the holder main body can be held. In the case that a plurality of types of mobile phones having different outer configurations and different arrangement positions of phone side connectors (for example, in the case that a plurality of persons having different mobile phones use a single automotive vehicle), as many phone holders as the types of the mobile phones must be prepared. Thus, the above phone holder can be used in a limited manner. Particularly, the holder connector secured to the holder connector is relatively expensive and, therefore, it is very uneconomical to prepare the holder connectors as many as the mobile phones.
Further, in the case of using a plurality of types of phone holders, it is considered to fix all holders side by side in a passenger compartment or to exchange the phone holder in conformity with the mobile phone in use. The former requires a large space to install all holders, whereas the latter requires very cumbersome installation and removal when the holders are exchanged.